Chemical weapons in Syria: what are they, what do they do and what evidence of their use exists?

By Emily BenammarUpdated
Tue 17 Sep 2013, 8:37 AM AEST

Photo

Hospital workers are pictured attending the injured after an alleged chemical attack.

Reuters

Following the publication of a UN report which confirms that sarin gas was used in an attack on August 21, we look back over allegations of the use of chemical weapons in Syria.

Syrian activists, the UK, US and France maintain that forces loyal to president Bashar al-Assad are responsible for the attack on August 21 which is believed to have killed more than 1,400 people.

Mr Assad has blamed the rebels.

While the report does not confirm who launched the attack, the UN has condemned it and called it a "despicable war crime".

Syria is understood to have the third largest stockpile of chemical weapons in the world - including sarin and other nerve gases.

Amid threats of the US using military force against the Assad regime, Syria has applied to the United Nations to join the global anti-chemical weapons treaty as the United States and Russia held talks in Geneva about putting the regime's chemical weapons under international control.

Allegations of the use of chemical weapons in Syria:

July 2012:

23rd: The Syrian regime acknowledges for the first time that it has chemical weapons but says it would not use them against its own people.

August 2012:

10th: US president Barack Obama warns that use of chemical weapons would be seen as "crossing a red line" and result in "enormous consequences".

December 2012:

3rd: A US official claims Syria has begun mixing chemicals that could be used to make sarin gas.

21st: NATO officials say Syria's military has fired Scud-type missiles inside the country. The mobile medium-range Scud is a Soviet-era missile that can carry a warhead of up to 1,000 kilograms. The missiles can be equipped with conventional, chemical or nuclear warheads.

23rd: Al Jazeera release unconfirmed reports of a gas attack killing seven people in the rebel-held al-Bayyada area of Homs.

March 2013:

19th: There are more unconfirmed reports that Scud weapons armed with chemical agents are used in the conflict. Israel also claimed that the Syrian government had used chemical weapons near Aleppo and Damascus. Read the story

22nd: The UN will launch an investigation into allegations chemical weapons have been used in Syria. Read the story

April 2013:

28th: Syria dismisses as a "barefaced lie" American and British claims it may have used chemical weapons, as staunch ally Russia warned against using such fears to intervene militarily in the strife-torn country.

Syria refused an investigation team from the UN from entering the country. Read the story

29th: Another chemical attack was reported, this time in Saraqib, in which two died and 13 were injured. The injured were taken to Turkey though a week later, Turkish doctors confirmed that no traces of sarin had been found in the blood samples of victims.

June 2013:

23rd: A chemical weapons attack by the Syrian government in the Zamalka district of Damascus was reported by the Syrian Support Group on June 24.

August 2013:

1st: The UN says Syria has given it the OK to investigate sites where it's claimed chemical weapons have been used. Read the story

5th: Another chemical attack by the Syrian army was reported by the opposition, who documented the injured with video footage. The activists claim up to 400 people were affected by the attack in Adra and Houma of the Damascus suburbs.

19th: UN inspectors have arrived in Syria to assess claims that chemical weapons have been used in the civil war. Read the story

21st: Syrian activists have accused forces loyal to president Bashar al-Assad of using nerve gas to kill more than 200 people during a heavy bombardment of rebel-held areas around Damascus. Read the story

23rd: UN says if proven that there was a chemical attack, it would be "a crime against humanity" and would "reap serious consequences". Russia urges the Syrian government to cooperate with a UN investigation into allegations chemical weapons were used in an attack.

27th: US secretary of state John Kerry says the use of gas in an attack outside Damascus was "undeniable". US makes clear its intent to launch military strikes.

September 2013

3rd France announced it would provide evidence that the regime was behind the attack - this is yet to have been made public.

4th: Putin does not rule out military action on Syria clear evidence shows Damascus carried out chemical weapons attacks, but added any strike would be illegal without United Nations support.

5th: German intelligence claims a Hezbollah official said Assad ordered a poison gas attack last month and that the organisation considered the move a mistake which showed he was losing his grip.

8th: European Union foreign ministers have urged "a clear and strong response" to an alleged Syria chemical weapons attack while stopping short of endorsing a strike on the Damascus regime.

9th: Assad denied that he was behind a chemical weapons attack on the Syrian people, as the White House continues to press ahead with the uphill effort of persuading Congress to approve a military strike.

13th: Syria applies to the United Nations to join the global anti-chemical weapons treaty as the United States and Russia held talks in Geneva about putting the regime's chemical weapons under international control.

14th: UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon says the report into the Aug 21 attack will show chemical weapons were used, though will not attribute blame.

17th: The UN report into the attack on Aug 21 confirms Sarin gas was used. Mr Ban calls it a war crime and says it was the most significant confirmed use of chemical weapons against civilians since Saddam Hussein used them in Halabja (Iraq) in 1988. US, France and UK maintain that Mr Assad was behind the attack.

French foreign minister Laurent Fabius said laboratory tests on samples smuggled out of the country had revealed the use of the gas "several times in a localised manner" and that "all options," including armed intervention, were on the table.

Obama's deputy national security advisor, Ben Rhodes, said US intelligence had confirmed Mr Assad's regime had sarin on a small scale against the Syrian opposition on multiple occasions in the past year.

He added that the US has no "reliable" evidence that rebels had used such weapons.

As the world awaits the results, the US claimed to have undeniable proof that Assad's regime was responsible and Barack Obama announced he was considering a military attack against the country.

France joins the US calls for action while in Britain, parliament voted against taking military action.

Syria's ally Russia demands that the US produces proof of the chemical attack and says the suggestion that Assad would use gas against his own people was "utter nonsense".

On September 2 France released a declassified summary of its intelligence's findings which tied the use of chemical weapons to Mr Assad.

The nine-page summary asserts that Mr Assad's forces conducted attacks involving "massive use of chemical agents" against civilians in suburbs of Damascus.

The report said that none of the rebel forces possessed the capacity to stock and use the type of agents they found.

On September 17 it was confirmed by the UN that its investigation had found that sarin gas was used in the attack on August 21 though as expected, the report did not say who launched the attack in the rebel-held suburb of Ghouta.

"The conclusion is that chemical weapons have been used in the ongoing conflict between the parties in Syria, also against civilians, including children, on a relatively large scale," the report by chief UN investigator Ake Sellstrom said.

"In particular, the environmental, chemical and medical samples we have collected provide clear and convincing evidence that surface-to-surface rockets containing the nerve agent sarin were used."

UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon condemned the attack as a war crime, and called on the Security Council to impose "consequences" for any failure by Mr Assad to keep to a Russia-US plan to destroy Syria's banned chemical arsenal.

Victims can suffocate or drown as their lungs fill with mucus and saliva.

It was used in a Tokyo subway attack in 1995 that killed 12 people.

Classified as a weapon of mass destruction in UN Resolution 687.

Who is saying what?

White House spokesman Jay Carney, March 19, 2013

"We are looking carefully at allegations of chemical weapons use, we are evaluating them.

"We are deeply sceptical of a regime that has lost all credibility and we would also warn the regime against making these kinds of charges as any kind of pretext or cover for its use of chemical weapons.

"The use of chemical weapons in Syria would be deplorable."

Barack Obama, March 21, 2013:

"We know the Syrian government has the capacity to carry out chemical weapons attacks. We know that there are those in the Syrian government who have expressed a willingness to use chemical weapons, if necessary, to protect themselves."

Syrian information minister Omran Al Zohbi, April 27, 2013:

"First of all, I want to confirm that statements by the US secretary of state and British government are inconsistent with reality and a barefaced lie.

"I want to stress one more time that Syria would never use it - not only because of its adherence to the international law and rules of leading war, but because of humanitarian and moral issues."

UN human rights investigator Carla del Ponte, May 5, 2013:

"According to the testimonies we have gathered, the rebels have used chemical weapons, making use of sarin gas. Still not irrefutable proof, (but) very strong suspicions, concrete suspicions that sarin gas has been used - assistance to victims shows this."

French foreign minister Laurent Fabius, June 5, 2013:

"We have no doubt that the gas is being used... The laboratory tests are clear. There is no doubt that the regime and its accomplices are using them.

"A line has been indisputably breached. We will hold talks with our partners on what we must do and all options are on the table," to decide "whether to react, including in an armed manner."

Obama's deputy national security advisor, Ben Rhodes, June 14, 2013

"Our intelligence community assesses that the Assad regime has used chemical weapons, including the nerve agent sarin, on a small scale against the opposition multiple times in the last year.

"The president has been clear that the use of chemical weapons - or the transfer of chemical weapons to terrorist groups - is a red line for the United States.

"The president has said that the use of chemical weapons would change his calculus, and it has."

Head of Russian lower house of parliament's foreign affairs committee Alexei Pushkov, June 14, 2013:

"Information about Assad's use of chemical weapons has been fabricated in the same place as the lies about [Saddam] Hussein's weapons of mass destruction" in Iraq.

"Why would Assad use sarin 'in small amounts' against the fighters? What is the sense?! In order to prompt outside intervention? It makes no sense."

Syrian information minister Omran al-Zohbi , August 25, 2013

"We have never used chemical weapons in Syria, in any form whatsoever, be it liquid or gas."

Senior US official, August 26, 2013

"Based on the reported number of victims, reported symptoms of those who were killed or injured, witness accounts and other facts gathered by open sources, the US intelligence community, and international partners, there is very little doubt at this point that a chemical weapon was used by the Syrian regime against civilians in this incident."

British foreign secretary William Hague. August 26, 2013

"We cannot in the 21st century allow the idea that chemical weapons can be used with impunity. We believe it's very important that there is a strong response and that dictators ... know that the use of chemical weapons is to cross a line and that the world will respond when that line is crossed."

Syrian foreign minister Walid al-Moallem, August 26, 2013

"Syria is ready to cooperate with the inspection team to prove that the allegations by terrorist groups (rebels) of the use of chemical weapons by Syrian troops in the Eastern Ghouta region are lies."

United States secretary of state John Kerry, August 27, 2013

What we saw in Syria last week should shock the conscience of the world; it defies any code of morality. Let me be clear: the indiscriminate slaughter of civilians, the killing of women and children and innocent bystanders by chemical weapons is a moral obscenity."

Bashar al-Assad, September 3, 2013

"Those who make accusations must show evidence. We have challenged the United States and France to come up with a single piece of proof. Obama and Hollande have been incapable of doing so. Anybody who contributes to the financial and military reinforcement of terrorists is the enemy of the Syrian people. If the policies of the French state are hostile to the Syrian people, the state will be their enemy. There will be repercussions, negative ones obviously, on French interests."

UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon, September 17, 2013

"This is a war crime. I trust all can join me in condemning this despicable crime. This is the most significant confirmed use of chemical weapons against civilians since Saddam Hussein used them in Halabja (Iraq) in 1988. The international community has pledged to prevent any such horror from recurring, yet it has happened again."

Chief UN investigator Ake Sellstrom, September 17, 2013

"The conclusion is that chemical weapons have been used in the ongoing conflict between the parties in Syria, also against civilians, including children, on a relatively large scale. In particular, the environmental, chemical and medical samples we have collected provide clear and convincing evidence that surface-to-surface rockets containing the nerve agent sarin were used."

British foreign secretary William Hague, September 17, 2013

"We welcome this objective and unequivocal report which confirms that chemical weapons were used on a large scale. From the wealth of technical detail in the report... it is abundantly clear that the Syrian regime is the only party that could have been responsible."